April 26, 2017 archive

Following a fatal home explosion, Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation will shut down nearly 3,000 vertical wells in northeastern Colorado, according to a report by The Denver Post. The massive fire occurred on April 17 in the suburban community of Firestone, Colorado, about 170 feet from a well drilled in 1993 and later acquired by Anadarko. …

As domestic oil futures settled higher and Brent crude finished lower, government data revealed the largest weekly drop in crude oil supplies for 2017, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, June West Texas Intermediate crude added 6 cents, or 0.1%, to settle at $49.62 a barrel. WTI briefly traded above $50 a …

New federal lobbying disclosure filings show Koch Industries Inc. spent more than $3 million lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill to push for the confirmation of Scott Pruitt to head the EPA. The first-quarter public filing shows Koch Industries spent $3.1, the most the company spent on lobbying since the end of 2015. Filings were posted …

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is being accused by Rhode Island Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of violating federal law by delivering a keynote address at a fundraiser set to be held next month by the Oklahoma Republican party. The Senator filed a complaint this week alleging Pruitt, the former Oklahoma Attorney General, of violating the …

Innovate, don’t regulate! It’s the message U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry recently delivered when he returned to Texas to speak before the first Responsible Shale Energy Extraction conference. He used Texas as an example, explaining how the state experienced an energy explosion when he was governor for 14 years all because the government did …

Guthrie State Rep. Jason Murphey says the state should avoid at all costs attempts to put a service tax on the information technology services sector. In a statement issued this week, the Republican legislator said other states have taxed IT and later repealed the tax. His statement came after Governor Fallin released a statement on …

A bill adding tribal governments to Oklahoma’s Clean Air Act was approved this week by the State House of Representatives. Senate Bill 492 won approval on a vote of 65-10. Representative Chuck Hoskin of Vinita explained the measure adds “tribal governments” to the list of those the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality will consult “in …

(Courtesy of Kingfisher Times and Free Press) The pipeline oil spill that occurred this week near the northwest Oklahoma town of Loyal wasn’t the first such incident involving equipment owned by Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline company. This is the same company that was indicted last year in California for a 2015 oil pipeline …